Monday, November 14, 2005

Community

One of the things one normally loses when leaving one group to join another -- is a shared history. I am talking about the knowledge one gains about another person through contact with them under a variety of circumstances. Knowledge that allows space to make a mistake or even to sin or forgive. Knowledge that builds memories to share at a later date. Knowledge that allows communication by a look or a trigger word that communicates by the memory of some shared experience. Joan and I have lost a lot of that in leaving Second Parish.

For 6 weeks Joan and I have been exploring various Christian Communities in the Portland area. Since we were visiting Anglican communities, we did feel a great sense of shared history as we participated in hymns we had always sung, hymns we knew were sung by Christians from centuries back, reponsively read Psalms that have even more history etc. But it is time now to get back into community. For us - as we find a temporary community (and maybe permanent home) at Christ The Redeemer, we are moving into a community with a lot of our old friends! We also then will be moving back into a community with which we have a lot of personal history already. What a blessing!

Yes, that idea of shared history and shared experiences is quite interesting. I think for us post-modern people shared experiences are much more important at first. Then we discover shared traditions and history. We experienced the shared history aspect upon moving into Upland, where reformed thought is rather unrecognized. yet, we found several people who new exactly what we were talking about. It felt so good and formed an instant bond.

It sounds as if you have a lot of shared history and old friends at the church you left. If your efforts to find an Anglican church are not what you had expected then why would you not go back to your old church family? Have you made every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace? I sense there is something more, perhaps there is something that has not been resolved.